The organizing and economizing roles of accounting for decarbonization of big climate offenders

• Ano de defesa: 2025
• Autor(a) principal: Borsatto Júnior, José Luiz
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Biblioteca Digitais de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Palavras-chave em Português: Carbon accounting; Climate change; Climate risk; Contabilidade de carbono; Decarbonization; Descarbonização; Economia de baixo carbono; Low-carbon economy; Mudanças climáticas; Risco climático
• Link de acesso: https://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/12/12136/tde-29092025-103809/

Climate change represents one of the 21st centurys most urgent challenges, with large corporations being both significant sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and critical agents for a low-carbon transition. All businesses are affected by climate change, as they depend on a stable climate to be economically viable. Therefore, companies need to adapt and plan to address physical and transition climate risks. Likewise, accounting must adapt to support such changes. The objective of this investigation is to explain how accounting enables the decarbonization of big climate offenders. A qualitative research approach was employed, positioned in the paradigm of explanatory interpretive research. Thus, a case study was conducted. The selected case study is the Climate Turnaround Fund, an equity investment fund that seeks to support its invested companies to transition to a low-carbon economy. The obtaining of evidence was based on interviews, documents, and observations. The Accounting Complex framework (Miller & Power, 2013) informed the analysis and the construction of four theoretical propositions, to explain how the fund uses accounting calculative practices to drive decarbonization in its portfolio. The findings explain that accounting plays four roles (territorializing, mediating, adjudicating and subjectivizing) in organizing and economizing the decarbonization of big greenhouse gas emitters. Accounting calculative practices organize decarbonization by defining its scope, facilitating collaboration, monitoring progress, and influencing action. At the same time, they economize decarbonization by translating environmental imperatives into financial logic, demonstrating its economic value, assessing its performance, and incentivizing its internalization based on financial and reputational benefits, which allows decarbonization to be defined as an economic entity and an accounting object. The results also explain how accounting is fundamental to incorporate climate risks and its financial consequences in investment decisions, to consider climate risks and opportunities in the business context, to create conditions for organizations to adapt to climate change, considering its impacts and dependencies on global temperature, to turn big corporations in decarbonizing agents, and to influence market perceptions and decisions in a broad manner. The research contributes to the carbon accounting literature by providing empirical evidence of accounting calculative practices active and crucial role in addressing climate change. It demonstrates how accounting can serve as a powerful tool for organizational change towards climate resilient development, facilitating the integration of climate action into investment analysis, organizational activities, management of climate-related issues, and decision-making processes. Findings also have practical implications for a range of stakeholders, including investors, companies, regulators, and accounting education. The explanations presented in this research also contribute to the climate finance agenda, a recurring topic at the Conferences of the Parties, as it details how a capital provider plans and executes an investment strategy focused on the climate transition. Ultimately, this research theorizes that accounting is not merely a reporting tool but an active force that shapes organizational behavior and market dynamics, making decarbonization a measurable, manageable, and economically feasible objective that mitigates climate risks.